Klipsch Chorus II Restoration

Been looking at these Klipsch Forte II's on CL for about a month. I figured as time went by, they were getting more and more into my price range. Finally contacted the guy and tried to agree on price. He was still about 3x what I wanted to give - even though his price was in line with what these should bring (in good to very-good condition at least).

Gave it about 2 more weeks to simmer and contacted him again. He told me "You really need to come listen to these before you make up your mind". I agreed and we met this morning. Super-nice guy btw. He buys the abandoned storage lockers like you see on TV and sells the contents. These speakers were inside one that he purchased - go figure?

Once there, I was stunned at how frickin' big these things are. Wow, didn't think Forte II's were that big. I was right, they are not - what I was looking at was Chorus II's, not Forte's. Another bonus: Consecutive Serials :thmbsp:

Some say the Forte's are better, some say the Chorus.... regardless, I'm just trying to figure out what kind of bribe I am going to have to promise the wife before she will allow these huge things in the house?? :scratch2: I think I already dodged a bullet with the DQ-10's, but these things are in a whole other league - size-wise.

Anywho, back to the story.... The guy has them hooked-up to an 80's Yamaha 120 watt receiver. He puts on some 80's rock and cranks the volume all the way to MAX! I kid you not - full volume! My ears were on fire!

He yells "Sound great huh? They don't even distort at full volume!"

Well, yeah they do and all sorts of bad things are likely to happen real soon so I sneak my hand over to the volume knob and lower it down to about 11 o'clock. They were still rocking the foundation btw. "That's cool", I say hoping the VC's aren't already melted.

He reaches over and cranks it back to MAX and yells "They are louder than any bar speaker I have ever heard!".

Again, I sneak my hand over and back it down to reasonable levels all the time thinking Jeeze, don't blow them up before I can buy them.

We were able to come to an agreement on price and I loaded them into the back of the truck. :yes:

Here are some pics.

I always complain that people should at least knock the dust off before posting pics but I wanted you to see them "farm-fresh".

Not too many problems.

Wood is decent, grills are sagging a bit. Emblems are missing.

The radiators have the dust caps push and one of them has a small puncture in the cone. I think I can fix that will a little glue on the back side and some tissue paper. The dust caps should be no problem.

One of the risers is separating on the corner but that should be fixable too.

All the screws have some rust on them.

All drivers are functional and sound great. I don't think anyone has even been inside.

Stay tuned, I will post pics as the restoration progresses.

Holy cow! I'm surprised he didn't blow them on the spot. Craziness.

Anyway, congrats on the Klipsch score. :thmbsp:

Order up some titanium tweeter diaphrams. Will bust your ears with smooth

Very nice, I will be getting a pair of Chorus 1's on Monday, I plan on doing upgrades to get the best out of them.

Congratulations, I purchased mine new in 1990 in Germany and have shipped them all over the place since then, needless to say they took a few bumps here and there. Just this past Winter I restored them for the next 25 years of service. Bob Crites a name you will hear a lot if talking Klipsch has great upgrade items for your Chorus II at reasonable prices. I through an upgraded set of his x-overs, Ti tweeter diaphragms, and replacement squacker diaphragms in mine. I believe new passive radiators are even still available for these. I just flipped mine over so they could sag the next 25 years in the opposite direction. After that there are some mods you will no doubt read about. I've tried some that were pretty easy and skipped others that were a little harder. For the dust caps I have heard a vacuum can help with popping them back out, just be careful and read up on it. I personally have a preference for the Klipsch sound.

Schmidlapper said:

.....I just flipped mine over so they could sag the next 25 years in the opposite direction.

Click to expand...

Crap! Sould have noted the orientation before I pulled mine.

OK. Day one. Since these things are so big, I think I will work them one at a time.

Pulled the passive radiator that has a hole in it. Turns out it has one hole AND a slit - didn't notice the slit while it was mounted. Neither of them too bad however. I need to get some tissue paper but I can go a head and start. I began by dampening the tear areas. I also dampen the dust cap a bit.

I have found that a little water helps the cone to be formed back into the position you desire. A little goes a long was however so don't over do it.

Once the "memory" of the puncture and tear was out of the cone, I applied a little Aileens to the damaged area and wiped the excess off the surface. My goal here was to get the glue down into the tear area and let the edges mend to each other. I am pleased with the results so far. Once I get the tissue, I will reinforce the area from the backside.

I figure the dust cap would be simple but it turned out to be a bear. I used the vacuum and every time I would pop one area out, another area would collapse. I finally realized since the area under the cap has such a tight seal, I was creating a lower pressure and that was pulling another area down. Once I realized what was going on, I did a little area and let the pressure equalize... then do another area.. etc till the whole cap was back (somewhat) in place. Not completely happy with the results. I may look to see how much Klipsch sells that dust cap for and replace it.

Several questions:

Note the pleats in the surround. It looks like some of them have been mashed and squished in a couple of spots. I don't think that will matter but what do ya'll think? They are in very good condition except for the noted mashed/squished areas.

What type of tissue paper should I get for the cone repair? Anything in particular work better than the others? Any special techniques I should apply? This is my first time attempting a cone repair.

More to come.....

Few more pics:

Odd thing. When I pulled the passive, two of the mounting screws were a different length?? Hum... think that is odd for Klipsch?

Screws will be treated to some nice black paint. They are beginning to rust and look nasty.

Here is shot of the pleats too.

Finally, before and after shots of the result for the evening. The tear spots are still a bit damp but as you can see, we are moving in the right direction

Here is the result of the passive radiator cone repair. Still noticeable of course but it is solid and I can live with the cosmetic imperfections.

I read a bit and one of the recommendations for the backside repair was single-ply paper towel saturated with a 1/2 Aileens, 1/2 water mix. That's what I used and it seems to have work great.

Much better than what we started with at least!

Now onto the first crossover.

Remember I said I didn't think anyone had ever been inside the cabs?? Well, I take that back. This crossover totally rigged.

Looks like something bad happened (can't imagine what) but the result is a PCB that has multiple cracks in it and wire leads that have been soldered in place of the original traces. Toss in a chunk of Styrofoam to keep it stabilize too. Rube Goldberg would be proud.

I must hand it to someone who saved a damaged crossover by this bit of ingenuity. I plan on replacing it with a non-damaged PCB when something become available. With all the folks jumping on the Crites Crossover bandwagon, maybe there are some spare boards floating around. I'll have to keep an eye out in BT and that auction site.

If I keep what I have now, I will at least increase the wire size to something a bit larger. I gotta think this is a choke-point for the signal.

Lastly, here is a pic of the woofer on a postal scale. Coming in at a bit over 20 Lbs~!

"Go Big or Go Home" should be the Klipsch motto.

Next on the list:

Wrap the horns in Dynamat.
Add mass to the passive to lower it's resonant frequency.
Butt-load of cab sanding
Refinishing

Hey man!

I need to go back and read more, for fun. I noticed your repair on the passive, looks great! It was recommended to me to use 2 layers on the back of the paper cone. It'll probably be fine with a passive. But I know with the Altec woofer in my 846b, I had to do 2. I tried just one, but on the first fire-up, it noticeably distorted along the tear. The second layer dialed it in perfectly.

xo, Biggles

Thanks for the advice Biggles. It probably wouldn't hurt to do another layer. The problem areas are about 180 degrees apart so as long as I do both, the passive should stay balanced. I plan on adding a little mass to the passive to lower the resonant frequency a bit anyways.

Wish I had you close-by for some woodwork advice - I'm a bit out of my element there. Luckily I have some fantastic post I can lean on to help me through the rough spots

Schmidlapper said:

Congratulations, I purchased mine new in 1990 in Germany and have shipped them all over the place since then, needless to say they took a few bumps here and there.

Click to expand...

Mine were 6 miles away. I can't even imagine shipping them across the pond!

Are/were you USAF, btw?

Feh, you'll do great. The veneer will tell you what it wants, it's really good at it, if you listen. I was thinking about it the last few minutes and you should most certainly put another layer on the back. Those Altecs won't ever receive the beating those Klipsch will. And just for reference, the gentleman who gave the the advice did the same repair on a CV woofer. He said his repair is still going strong after 5 years, so you'll do just fine.

Biggles

-reverb- said:

Few more pics:

Odd thing. When I pulled the passive, two of the mounting screws were a different length?? Hum... think that is odd for Klipsch?

Screws will be treated to some nice black paint. They are beginning to rust and look nasty.

Here is shot of the pleats too.

Finally, before and after shots of the result for the evening. The tear spots are still a bit damp but as you can see, we are moving in the right direction

Click to expand...

Hey mang,

I wouldn't worry about the pleats, it doesn't look too bad. But I wouldn't worry about them mostly because there's not much you can do about it at the moment. There are more pressing matters, huh? And, it's one of those things you can keep your eyes open in the future for replacements.

I would suggest wandering over to Barter Town and placing a Wanted to Buy ad for the crossovers. One would think you would be able to find what you need fairly inexpensively. How's the veneer look? Worst areas?

Biggles

Great work so far Reverb! :thmbsp: I think the mismatched screws for the passive may have come from the crossover or the plastic input terminal cup. Klipsch would NOT have done that at the factor. Now, DCM on the other hand ....

Nope, I was a civilian working for the US Army in Germany for five years. Bought and still use the turntable, speakers, amp, pre amp and tuner I got over there in the sound and vision center of the PX. Uncle Sam shipped them back and then back and forth across the country here once. Recently recapped and rebuilt most of it, that is one of the advantages of older good quality stereo equipment. :yes:

-reverb- said:

Mine were 6 miles away. I can't even imagine shipping them across the pond!

Are/were you USAF, btw?

Click to expand...

Schmidlapper said:

Nope, I was a civilian working for the US Army in Germany for five years.

Click to expand...

Thank You for your service! :thmbsp:

Well, it's like nine-billion degrees here in Middle Georgia so I am looking to do ANYTHING except sanding in the hot garage.

Hey, those horns need to be wrapped!

Ordered some Dynamat off that big auction site and began to apply it to the midrange and tweeter horn body's.

This is something my OCD-self really enjoyed! Got into a sort-of Zen state while cutting and applying the various pieces.

I ordered 3 square feet but I think 2 square feet would be enough to cover both mids and both tweets.

Here are the results.

OH COOL !!!!

I wonder if I'll get a chance to work on such a pair, one would think so. Klipsch sells pretty darned well out here on the west coast.

Not sure what my plans will be this weekend, it's open to interpretation.

Biggles